1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a carrying case that is adapted to safely transport a portable computer workstation. The carrying case has a plug-in switch module and a plug-in connector module that are removably attached to and readily available at the top of a shroud that lies along one side of the carrying case, whereby power distribution and control signals can be selectively routed between a power supply, the computer and computer peripherals of the workstation.
2. Background Art
Portable offices have been known for several years. In general, a personal computer, printer, power supply and other computer peripherals are packaged within a carrying case to facilitate transport and storage of a workstation. Many commercially available computer workstations are modular in nature such that different hardware components can be interconnected with one another and then added or replaced on an as-needed basis.
In some cases, the versatility of the computer workstation has been limited primarily due to the space limitations that are characteristic of the carrying case. That is to say, it is often desirable to package together many hardware components within the same carrying case. Consequently, the user is often subjected to inconvenience and a waste of time by having to remove the computer, printer and/or some of the other peripherals before he has sufficient room to be able to connect or disconnect the hardware components. What is even more, the cable runs which stretch between the computer, peripherals and power source in conventional carrying cases are known to be bulky and consume a relatively large volume of space so as to undesirably limit the usable volume of the case in which to package the hardware.
Therefore, it would be desirable to be able to efficiently arrange a modular, portable computer workstation within a carrying case where the cable runs and the connections between the computer, peripherals and power source are located at an out-of-the-way area within the case so as to advantageously conserve usable space and thereby allow an efficient packaging of the hardware and ready access to the connectors therebetween for the purpose of easily adding or removing the modular components, whereby to increase the life of the workstation and permit a wider range of computers and peripherals to be integrated within the carrying case.
Reference may be made to commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,212,628 (issued May 18, 1993), 5,226,540 (issued Jul. 13, 1993) and 5,442,512 (issued Aug. 15, 1995) for examples of portable computer workstations within a carrying case.